The H-R Orchestra (HRO) will tour three cities this month with a program of Harvard-composed music, HRO conductor James D. Yannatos said yesterday.

The program spans 160 years of compositions by Harvard students and alumni, from the 19th century work of John K. Paine to a piece by Gregory R. Bliss, fourth-year graduate student in Music.

The orchestra will play at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and will inaugurate the use of a new hall at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. The last stop on the tour will be Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Contributions, mainly from alumni and from parents of students, are financing the tour, Yannatos said.

An unofficial purpose of the tour is to interest alumni in the performing arts at Harvard, said an HRO Cliffie. She added that she hoped alumni would encourage creative performance by sponsoring recitals or music lessons for Harvard students. The Music Department offers no instruction in instrumental music.